


Half-Ghost Fantasy

by DoNotComeAtMeBerry



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Action, Danny Fenton/Phantom, Drama, Fiction/Fantasy, Gen, Ghosts, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-12 20:44:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 20,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoNotComeAtMeBerry/pseuds/DoNotComeAtMeBerry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny meets his uncle Dirk Fenton, Jack's brother, but finds out almost immediately that Dirk is not one to be trusted, and he finds out the hard way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of my first fan fictions. I take constructive criticism, so if you have any questions or comments, please, ask away or feel free to comment/review! :)  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, only the following fan fiction based on it.

(Prologue)

“Dad?"

“Yes, son?”

Danny handed his father the wrench. “I still don’t understand what this machine thingy is for. Why do we have to build it?”

“Don’t understand?” Jack sputtered. “Danny, this is not a 'machine thingy'. It’s a portal to the ghost world.”

Danny sighed. Of course, a ghost hunting device or invention that Jack and Maddie Fenton were sure would work but always ended up not working should have been expected. After all, they were trying to make a portal to the “ghost world” that didn’t even exist. But it didn't matter. They were still convinced that this portal was going to work, and Danny was stuck downstairs in the Fenton lab helping them build it.

Jack twirled the wrench in his gloved hand and used it to more securely screw in a bolt to the metal walls of the “portal”. “Maddie, I think we’re done.”

“All we have to do is plug it in,” Danny’s mother squeaked in delight.

“Stand back, son.” Jack stretched his arm out in front of Danny to push him away from the portal. Danny backed away willingly, knowing that this new invention was bound to fail. Jack stepped closer to the outlet and plugged the cord in. The portal made a few small buzzing and screeching sounds, and a couple of sparks flew, but nothing else happened.

“Shocker,” Danny muttered dryly. Ashamed, disappointed, and confused, Jack and Maddie headed upstairs without a word. Danny followed them and watched TV until his closest friends, Tucker Foley and Sam Manson showed up at his doorstep.

“Come on in,” he said, opening his door more widely and standing aside, beckoning them inside.

“Hey Danny!” Both Tucker and Sam greeted.

Danny gave a small, upward nod in greeting.

"Dude, why didn't you call me back this morning?" Tucker gave him the guilt-trip look. 

Danny led them both downstairs to show them yet another failed experiment of the Fenton lab. He explained everything, and at the end, they seemed to understand why he had neglected his phone on a Saturday morning, but they didn't fully understand the portal.

“A portal to the ghost world?” Tucker shook his head sadly. “Danny, sometimes I think your parents are just going bonkers.”

“I wish I had the heart to tell them that,” Danny replied, shrugging.

“Dude, I dare you to go inside it!” Tucker challenged him, nudging his shoulder.

“What? No way!” Danny shuddered. “My parents built it. It’s unstable on so many levels already!”

“You’re scared,” Tucker teased.

“Just give him what he wants,” Sam cut in, rolling her eyes at Tucker. “He only wants to see you go inside because he’s too scared to do it himself.”

“Am not!” Tucker argued.

Danny considered this for a moment. “Fine,” he conceded, then headed to a closet in the corner, pulled out something that was on a hanger, and hurriedly slipped on the jumpsuit-looking outfit.

“What?” He said when Sam and Tucker stared at his strange outfit inquisitively. “Better safe than sorry.” Without waiting for either of them to reply, he ventured inside the portal.

It smelled musky inside and he paused to cough. Then, he wandered even further into the seemingly empty portal, brushing his hand against the wall.

Only he didn’t realize that his had brushed up against a button that read, “POWER: ON”.

Sam and Tucker’s images were shattered at the portal entrance, and before Danny could shout after them, a strange, strong feeling coursed through him. It was painful and it felt like a deep, powerful vibration that seemed to reach the blood pumping rhythmically through his veins, to the very marrow of every bone in his body, and even to the deepest parts of his soul. He tried to howl in pain but it took to much energy and he was rendered speechless. He fought to stay conscious but it was too much. His eyes were closing and he let everything in his vision turn black.

When he awoke, his eyelids were still shut and they felt too stubborn to open when he tried. He shifted his position and tried to open his eyes again. That time it worked, but everything was blurry until he blinked a few times and recognized the Fenton lab, calming down a bit. His breathing was raspy and itchy with every breath. When he opened his mouth and tried to call out for help, his voice was silent and he tried not to panic, clearing his throat.

“Tucker?”

No answer.

“Sam?”

Silence. Danny tried to sit up, but grew dizzy and felt sick. He lied back down and waited a couple moments, then slowly lifted his head, then shoulders, then leaned back with his elbows for support. He waited a while longer to stand up and walked slowly, then ran, then darted to the bathroom, starting to feel sick again.

When he got there, he sped past the mirror to the toilet to be sick, then paused and tiptoed slowly back to the mirror, now feeling more anxious than sick. He took a reluctant glance at the mirror and saw someone completely different staring back at him. He ran his fingers through hair that was whiter than snow when it should have been black. _What happened to my hair?_ His eyes widened-- _Wait… My eyes!_  They were a glowing green, not nearly as blue as they were supposed to be. _Even my clothes are different._ He wore a black, skin-tight suit, with white gloves and boots.

_This is weird… Oh god, this is really freaking weird._

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 Chapter 1

Tucker watched Danny thoughtfully as he stabbed at a piece of questionable meat on his lunch tray with his fork. “Something wrong?”

“No. The fact that I’m now a half-ghost is just perfect.” Danny didn’t look at him.  
Tucker seemed to take his sarcasm seriously, because he replied brightly, “Well, good!”  
“C’mon, Danny, how bad can it be?” Sam patted him on the back to reassure him. “Now you’re cooler among all these disgustingly normal people that are desperate to fit in with the crowd.”

“But I do want to fit in,” Danny argued. “Now I’m even more of a weirdo than usual.”

“Got that right,” Tucker snorted in amusement. Sam gave him a frosty glare.

“Fenton!”

“Aw, man. This is just what I need,” Danny mumbled grudgingly as Dash Baxter, the obnoxious, idiotic football jock of Casper High School approached him in an aggressive manner.

“Fenton,” he snarled, “Look what I found in my locker.” Dash shoved a sticky note in Danny’s face and he blinked. The note said:

 _I bet you can’t take me down in a_ real _fight. Meet me after school by the tether ball pole. See ya then, if you’re not wimpy enough to back down._  
 _-Danny_

“But I didn’t write that!” Danny argued.

“Then why does it look like your handwriting?” Dash snorted.

“Well, I have no explanation for that.” Danny’s eyes were wide and he felt nervous. "Wait-- how do you know what my handwr-"

Dash grabbed him by his shirt collar and said through gritted teeth, “You. Me. We fight after school, if you’re not wimpy enough to back down!” He dropped Danny’s collar and he stumbled to his feet as Dash glowered at him with fiery hatred in his gaze that seemed to glow, almost… Suddenly, Danny’s breath became cold and a frosty mist came out of his mouth when he exhaled.

“Guys,” he murmured out of the rest of the students’ earshot, “problem.”

“Go,” Sam urged him. “We’ll distract Dash.”

“No, Dash is the problem,” Danny told her. “Something’s up with him and I have to figure it out. Let me handle it.” Sam opened her mouth to protest but Danny turned around.

“Oh, Dash!” He hollered suddenly. “If you want to fight, come and catch me!” He sprinted for the door to the hallway as Dash sped after him, alarmingly fast, even for a football player. Something _was_ wrong. Dash’s eyes were still glimmering with that reddish glow as he chased Danny through the hallways. Danny veered off to his left and headed into the janitor’s closet so he could change to his ghostly form, but Dash had smashed the door down within seconds and Danny had no choice.

 _Going ghost!_ The familiar white rims appeared at his waist, with their strange, electrified power buzzing around him. Soon enough, the rims separated and traveled around his body, turning his white T-shirt into a black suit as the rims spread to his knees and neck, and then head to toe. White boots, white gloves. Dash’s eyes were still red but extremely wide with shock, his jaw dropping. “You’re a ghost?”

Danny answered him by swinging a powerful punch at his jaw. Dash fell back in surprise, rubbing his jaw, eyes squinted in pain. He grunted and sprang back to his feet, but something even stranger than everything else happened. Dash’s eyes closed and he collapsed, falling unconscious, his body splayed out awkwardly on the ground. Sam and Tucker appeared at the doorway of the closet as an almost transparent figure sprang out of Dash’s inert body. “You don’t know who I am, but _I_ _know you_.” His voice sounded old and raspy, as if he had aged many years in only moments, as if he had seen the worst of the world at a younger age and wished he could forget it. The ghost’s snarl bounced along the walls of the room and echoed loudly in Danny’s head. He cringed in pain and held his ears.

“Who are you?” He shouted over the loud echoes of the ghost’s voice.

The ghost laughed icily before dissolving in mid-air. Danny changed back to normal soon after. Sam and Tucker were staring into the room, their mouths gaping. Principal Ishiyama’s head poked through the threshold of the room, her face scrunched up in anger. That was when Danny realized it looked like he had beaten up Dash in the janitor’s closet.

“Mr. Fenton,” Principal Ishiyama said briskly, “my office, right now.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Danny, I’m very disappointed in you.” Maddie stood at the kitchen table’s edge, meeting his gaze steadily.

“I agree,” Jack added, pulling up a chair next to Danny at the table. He said nothing as his father went on. “Beating up an innocent student like that? I expect more from you, son, and if you ever do it again you won’t see a TV screen for the rest of your high school years.”

“But you don't understand," Danny started, "I was only--"

"We don't want to hear it. We all know what happened, Danny, and there's no way you can get out of it. Now leave our sight."

Danny gave an exasperated sigh and stalked off to the living room. Deciding he didn't prefer silence, he slumped onto the couch and turned on the TV. But as he listened to the news story on channel 9, he felt his face grow pale. A news reporter stood in the heart of Amity Park, saying:

"...supposed sightings of the ghost boy at Casper High School early this afternoon. Here to describe the ghost's appearance is Casper High student Dash Baxter."

Dash had a swollen, reddish jaw from his ghostly encounter with Danny. He wore a bandage that surrounded most of it. "He was... wearing a black suit.... and he had white hair...." His nose was wrinkled as he tried in vain to remember.

Fear of being discovered as half-ghost overtook Danny's jealousy of Dash being on the news. He turned off the TV and just then, he heard someone rapping on his door urgently. Jazz got to the door beofre him, and he backed away toward the living room again. Anyone could have been on the other side of that door.

He sighed his relief when Jazz answered the door to Sam. Sam waited for Danny's sister to invite her in and headed inside quickly. "Where's Tucker?"

"Still at detention," Sam explained hurriedly. Danny, Sam, and Tucker all had to serve detention after school that day because Prinicpal Ishiyama and Mr. Lancer thought they were part of the reason for Dash's damaged jaw. "He had to clean up afterwards. Did you see the news?"

"I just turned it off." Danny became pale again. "What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know. We should find out how much the media knows first."

Jack and Maddie came into the living room as Sam turned the TV back on. The reporter continued:

"...Thank you, Mr. Baxter. If anyone is to see a ghost as described, please call with all available information on this ghost."

"Ghost?" Jack growled. "By god, Maddie, there's a ghost on the loose in Amity Park!"

"Jack," Maddie murmured, "do you think... the portal might have been the cause of all this?"

"Nonsense." Jack was already heading downstairs to the lab. "It doesn't work. Even if it did, it can only let us in, not let ghosts out."

When they were both gone, Danny, Jazz, and Sam were left alone in the living room. Jazz avoided their gazes and said, "I have to go," and left hastily.

"What was that about?" Danny wondered aloud.

Sam shrugged and turned up the TV volume.

"...And now, for the top ten most popular songs of the week," the reporter announced.

she sighed and turned it off.


	3. Chapter 3

"What are we gonna do? I'm bound to be discovered as a half-ghost!"

Sam rested her hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. If you get too nervous things will get out of control."

"Things are already out of control! First of all, someone knows my secret." He closed his eyes as the doorbell rang.

"Is that Tucker?"

"Maybe."

He stood up and headed for the door, then as he opened it, he said, "Get in here! Someone knows--" Danny paused as he realized it wasn't Tucker. It was a stranger, a tall, middle-aged yet strapping man, but he had a familiar glimmer in his blue gaze, that Danny had seen somewhere before.

Suddenly, his breath became frosty again, like it did earlier that day during the encounter with the weird ghost. _Oh no!_

"Who are you?"

The man chuckled. "You must be Danny." He reached out his hand, a sign that he wanted Danny to shake his hand.

Danny didn't acknowledge it. "Who are you?" He repeated, observing the man carefully but steadily.

"I'm your uncle Dirk. Dirk Fenton."

"How come I've never seen you before?" He decided that he wasn't going to be too friendly unless he knew this guy well enough, even though the fact that this 'Dirk' guy was his uncle did seem to explain the familiarity of his gaze.

Dirk was still smiling. "I live in Maine. I haven't seen your parents in quite a while."

Danny only replied with a "yeah". Sam came to the door and stopped beside him, facing Dirk.

"Hi. I'm Sam," she greeted, shaking his hand vigorously.

"Nice to meet you, Sam, I'm Dirk," he replied, shaking her hand back and grinning.

 _Can't this guy stop smiling, or is his face stuck?_  Danny had to stifle a scornful laugh.

"Dad," he called, wanting to make sure everything 'Dirk' said was true. "Someone at the door wants to talk to you."

Jack headed upstairs, soon followed by Maddie, who removed her goggles, and both of Danny's parents smiled.

"Dirk!" Jack hollered with delight, coming forward to embrace his brother. Dirk patted Jack on the back, and Jack did the same. "It's been a long time! Haven't they got watches in Maine?"

Dirk laughed. "They sure do," he said, pointing to a watch on his left wrist, "but I forgot to set mine."

They both filled the room with raucous laughter.

"Ugh," Danny mumbled. Sam headed to Danny's room and Danny followed, waiting for the laughter to slowly get quieter as he went farther away from it. "I don't trust him," he said after closing the door behind him.

"Come on, Danny." Sam was smiling, too. "Your uncle's got real charisma!"

"Charisma." Danny spat the word. "Yeah, right."

"He's just like you! He's even got the same eyes as you. They're a lovely blue, and they always light up in such a great way."

Danny blinked.

Realizing what she had said, Sam started to blush and added, "You know what I mean. Your eyes light up like Dirk's," quietly.

"Well, thanks, I guess." Danny was blushing, too, and he half-smiled. "Your eyes light up, too...?"

Tucker nearly busted his room's door out of its hinges.

"Dude! The media's onto you!"

"Tucker!" Danny answered, hiding his irritation that his friend had burst in on him with Sam, as if anything would have happened anyway... "We know."

"What's wrong?"

Danny hadn't masked his irritation well enough. "Did you see that man downstairs?"

Tucker nodded.

"That's apparently my uncle Dirk Fenton. I felt chills down my spine when I first saw him. He's from Maine, and I've never met him before. I don't think I should trust him."

"Seriously?" Tucker's head was tipped to one side in confusion, like a dog. "But dude, it was like he couldn't stop smiling!"

"Exactly! He was too friendly..." Danny trailed off. "I bet he's a ghost."

"Well, you're a ghost, and we trust you," Tucker pointed out.

"That's different! We've been friends for a long time already. You guys would always trust me. But that guy... he's... ugh." He stopped and shuddered. "Remember today at lunch?"

Both Tucker and Sam nodded.

"That ghost today said he knew me... I'd never seen him before until today. I've never seen Dirk before and I didn't know him until today. Don't you get it? That ghost was Dirk!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Danny, I thought you were crazy at first, but now... it's starting to make sense." Tucker sat down at the foot of Danny's bed.

"I think so, too," Sam agreed, "but he's overthinking it. Danny, please just calm down." As Sam spoke, Danny started to breathe heavily. He kept breathing more and more raggedly, and eventually, his lungs were screaming for air no matter how hard he tried to breathe. He collapsed onto the floor and Sam and Tucker rushed to his side.

"Danny!" Tucker hollered, his eyes wild with panic. "Danny, are you okay?"

"Does it look like-- it?" Danny stammered sarcastically, his face starting to turn blue. He watched his two friends staring down at him, terrified, as he became dizzy and splotches of black overtook his consciousness. 

 He awoke in a hospital bed, to the sound of the monitor next to him, mimicking his heartbeat.  _Beep... beep... beep..._

His parents were to the left of the bed, and Danny stared alarmingly at Dirk, who was next to them. "You're still here?"

A grin spread over Dirk's expression, but this time, it wasn't that amiable, believable smile, but a dark, malevolent grin. His red gaze flashed, then back to blue. "You didn't think I was going to leave did, you?"

_I wished you had left._ Danny bit back the angry remark and closed his eyes, not wanting to see the pain on his parents' faces, their clueless expressions that represented what they knew about who Dirk really was. When he opened them, he didn't see any pain. Only fear. His parents were afraid. By the looks on their faces, he couldn't tell if they were afraid  _for_ him, or if they were afraid  _of_ him.

"Danny, you didn't tell us you were a ghost..." Maddie trailed off awkwardly.

"What?" Danny sat up, alarmed. "How did you--" he paused.  _Dirk._

"You told them!" Danny's eyes went from blue to green in fury. As he glared athis uncle, is parents backed away slightly.

"Yes, I told them." Dirk pretended to count on his fingers as he spoke. "I also told the media, the public... oh, and also the world."

He turned to Jack and Maddie, who flinched under his green glare. "Why can't you see that Dirk is _bad news?"_

"Son," Jack murmured, "you should try to understand that Dirk thought that this was for the good of the public to know."

"Oh, come on!" Danny's hands flew into the air in exasperation. He lay back down, sighing. "You might as well ship me off to some ghost asylum for the rest of my life while you pretend Dirk is your son instead."

Maddie bravely ventured closer to Danny and rested a hand on the hospital bed. "Dirk only meant well."

Danny ignored her, his gaze fixated on his malicious, manipulative uncle. "Get out."

"If you say so." Dirk backed away, a smirk planted on his face.

Danny had to be held back by his parents from leaping out of the bed and attacking Dirk. He fought them until Dirk left the room, then he stopped and slowly laid back down, burying his head into the pillow, hoping he could disappear, hoping he could slip into a universe of oblivion. Even though it was a possibility, and even though he considered it, he wouldn't dare... it was something that would not only take him away from his loved ones but take away much of their happiness. It wasn't their fault that his true identity was revealed; it was Dirk's fault.

It was all Dirk's fault.

He had just noticed that he couldn't fully change to his ghost form in this place.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Where are we?"

It was Maddie who answered him.

"We're in... well, we're in Belfast, Ireland."

"... Ireland? But why?"

"Ireland is the place where the most ghost research in the world has been done."

"How come nobody knows this?"

"It's highly confidential information."

"Confidential. You know what else should have been confidential information? THE FACT THAT I'M HALF-GHOST." Danny emphasized every word with sarcasm as he spoke. When his parents didn't reply, he added, "Where's Jazz?"

"She's back with Sam and Tucker."

"Where are they?"

His parents looked alarmed, as though they had already said too much. Jack stepped forward, deciding boldly that he would be the one to answer.

"They're at a research lab in Dublin."


	5. Chapter 5

His parents' expressions were grave, but he didn't understand. Apparently a Dublin research lab was a bad thing... He couldn't bear the thought of something happening to his two best friends, or Jazz. "Why is that bad again?"

"Danny..." Maddie whispered, "The research team is probing their memories for any ghost-based information."

"Again... not seeing why that's a bad thing."

Jack and Maddie exchanged glances, like they were reconsidering if they should have told him anything in the first place. "You'll find out soon enough."

"No, it's not soon enough unless you tell me now." His eyes went again from blue to green, and he couldn't shake the cold feeling that there was a ghost (other than himself, of course) present. His breath was chilled, as it always was when a ghost was near.  _No._ _How is this possible?_ If he couldn't go to ghost form in here, who could?

Maddie shook her head and didn't bother to meet Danny's glowing gaze. She turned away and walked out quickly.

Unlike Danny's mother, Jack met his gaze steadily. "Your mother knows what's best for you. She thinks it would break your heart for you to find out."

"I feel  _so_ much better now that I know that," he muttered through gritted teeth. "Thanks for letting me know. Now I won't get any sleep tonight until I find out." He paused. "Dad, when I passed out in my room... it felt like someone was strangling me." He didn't want to go on, but at the same time, he did. He didn't want to tell his father that his own brother had lied to him and tried to kill his son, but he was willing to just to save him from Dirk.

"You're going to see your frienDds today," Jack told him.

"Really?" Danny sat up again so quickly he almost bumped his head against the wall behind him. "When?"

Just then, as if answering his question, a stranger wearing a labcoat covered in multicolored stains burst in through the door, followed by a couple of others who wore masks over their mouths. Jack was immediately shoved out of the room. The young yet balding man with the labcoat was babbling nonstop with information while someone in a black suit followed him, writing everything down on a clipboard. "Name: Danny Fenton, approximate age: 14 years, paranormal status: half-ghost, reported at 10:37 A.M., time of departure to Dublin Official Paranormal Research Lab expected: 11:00 A.M., approximate time of expected arrival to spoken destination, 12:48 P.M...." As the labcoat man went on and on, the rest of the masked doctors surrounded him, each holding needles, ready to inject unfamiliar fluids into Danny. He raised his head in alarm, but one of the doctors held him down firmly and the first one injected a reddish liquid into his arm. He panicked as the black splotches took his vision over once again. Everyone seemed to want to pull him into unconsciousness, especially Dirk...

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

"Danny." The voice was gentle, but it also sounded perturbed, like something had torn relentlessly through the voice's peaceful atmosphere.

His eyes were sealed shut.

"Danny," the gentle voice repeated.

The voice was given a body as Danny opened his eyes. The body of a stranger. A tall, lanky stranger with small, circular spectacles and a labcoat too short for him. "Hello. I'm Doctor Neil, but you can call me Neil." Even though his voice was the first thing that brought Danny back to his waking world, he just noticed Neil's deep Irish accent.

"What did you do with my friends?" He asked calmly, trying not to scowl. Anything he did might have had a bad effect on how they treated Tucker, Sam, and Jazz. "And my sister?"

"They're safe." The doctor's voice of gentleness dissolved and turned into a grave tone. "You might want to come see them."

Dr. Neil led him down a a long hallway with complicated twists and turns. Eventually, they reached a large door at the end of the hall. Neil paused at the entrance and pressed a small, beige-colored button. A mechanical voice rang out:

_FULL NAME._

"James Lewis Neilson," Neil announced clearly into the microphone.

_PLEASE PRESS THUMB TO SCANNER FOR DNA ACCESS CHECK._

Neil did as the voice told him, and a loud ringing sound boomed through the hallway.

_DNA RECOGNIZED. DO YOU HAVE A GUEST PATIENT?_

"Yes."

_PLEASE STATE PATIENT'S FULL NAME._

"Daniel Fenton."

_ENTRY GRANTED._

The doors split apart and as the entrance shot open, a large room stood before them, where Tucker and Sam were lying on cold, hard metal tables, their eyes shut tightly. They wore white jumpsuits. Seemed like an outfit they would both hate seeing themselves in. Then again, no one really wanted to wear a white jumpsuit, but the thought of his friends unhappy made Danny shudder.

"Why are they here?"

In front of both Tucker and Sam were screens, flashing with images of Danny in both human and ghost form, and images of their family and personal lives. On Sam's screen, both fake-out-make-outs flashed, then more personal memories, while Tucker's memories consisted mainly of meat, girls, Danny, and technology.

"Our research team is probing their minds to find out information about you."

"Why didn't they just ask them about me?"

"They did, but both of your friends refused to talk, so they strapped 'em down and hooked up the machinery."

Danny felt anger at this. He squeezed his hands into fists but his eyes didn't even glimmer. Maybe the injections earlier had weakened his ghost powers.

"What about Jazz?"

"Since she shares Fenton blood, she's been taken to another lab here so we can take a blood sample and compare her blood with yours."

He shuddered. "I can explain everything! Why do you need to torture them when I have all the information you need?"

Neil's expression was still grave. "I don't make the rules, Danny. We already know everything you could tell us."

"Oh, really?" Danny began. "I became a half-ghost in an accident caused by my own stupidity when I went into a portal my parents created and turned it on without noticing."

"We've run some DNA tests on you and fond that it's infused with ectoplasm."

"That's all you need to know!" Danny spat before pausing. A lump of uncertainty formed in his throat. "Isn't it?"

"I agree, but there are others who don't think so."

Danny didn't reply, didn't ask questions about Neil's comment.

"There's something you need to know now."

He looked up at Neil.

"Your friends... well, since their minds are being searched, their personal memories are being slowly drained from their minds."

"So... that means... they won't know who I am, or who they are?"

Neil nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

Danny shouldered his way past Neil to the metal beds where Sam and Tucker lay unconscious. He watched the screens as the images and memories became more recent. Both of his friends would never have those memories again. They wouldn't know he was a ghost, or that he was their friend, and Sam would never know that he--

Neil jerked him out of his thoughts. "I'm sorry." He put a hand on his shoulder.

Danny shook it away. Neil, who seemed to understand that Danny wanted to be left alone, walked away and joined a quiet, anxious discussion among some other scientists. He watched them for a while, then turned back around to look at his two friends.

The mechanical voice rang out through the large room again:

_MEMORY CHECK COMPLETE._

Neil headed back over and pressed a couple of buttons, then flipped a switch on the machine that was hooked up to Tucker and Sam. A tiny chip emerged from a slit in the side of the machine and Neil put it in a case, then put the case in his pocket. A few other scientists that had crowded around Danny's friends helped disable the wires attached to certain parts of their skulls, and when they were finished, Neil murmured to Danny, "They're waking up."

Danny didn't answer him. He stood there silently, waiting nervously for Sam and Tucker to awaken without any recollection of what had happened, or any recollection of  _anything_ , for that matter.

"Wha--" Tucker was the first one to wake up. "Where am I? Who are you people?"

Danny moved closer to the metal bed that Tucker was now sitting up on. "Tucker?"

"Who's Tucker?"

 _It's true._ Sadness clawed at Danny's heart. "No one. My bad."

Neil bent forward and said, "You can tell them everything you know about and they'll believe you."

"Really?" He turned back around and faced Tucker again, meeting Tucker's turqoise-colored gaze. "Your name is Tucker Foley. You love technology, meat, and girls. You're my best friend and you help me fight evil ghosts. I'm half-ghost but I'm a good ghost. I tried to keep my identity a secret but my uncle Dirk Fenton revealed my identity to the world and now your memories have been probed by scientists, which is why you can't remember anything."

"That makes perfect sense!" Tucker laughed, as though everything was going to be fine. "Thanks. Who are you again?"

"I'm Danny. Danny Fenton, your best friend."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

Danny contemplated his question carefully, then answered it with another question.

"Would your best friend lie to you?"

"Guess not." Tucker shrugged, shifting uncomfortably in the white jumpsuit.

At that moment, Sam began to stir and Danny headed for the metal table that she awoke on.

"What--" Sam started.

 _I hope this works!_  "Fake-out make-out!" Danny leaned in hastily and kissed her. Sam's lavender eyes were wide and all the scientists stared, jaws gaping. He waited until her eyes lit up with recognition, then broke away from her.

"D-Danny?" He watched as the confusion on her face was washed away.

Danny smiled, and she smiled back. His heart raced.

"Well," Neil broke in, holding up the memory chip, "I think I'll take this down to the office."


	7. Chapter 7

Sam turned around and saw Tucker, who was watching TV on the screen where his memories once flashed. "What happened?"

"Long story short, everyone knows I'm a ghost now." Danny didn't feel like explaining. But when Sam gave him a concerned look, he decided that she deserved to know. So he told her everything, about Dirk strangling him until he was out like a light, about waking up in a ghost-proof hospital in Ireland, about going to the Dublin Research Lab (DRL), about Tucker and Jazz, even though Sam already knew about most of it.

"Hey, maybe you can try the fake-out make-out on Tucker and Jazz, and they'll get their memory back," Sam joked half-heartedly.

Danny laughed softly. "Sorry. It was as weird for me as it was for you."

"No it wasn't." Sam grinned wryly. "I had just woken up from a coma without any memory of anything. My mind was literally empty when a stranger stepped in and kissed me."

"Fine, you win. But for the record, I'm not a stranger anymore." Danny smiled back. Then, his smile faded as another question came to mind. "Why didn't you guys tell them anything about me?"

Sam considered his question, and while she did so, there was a long silence. Finally, she replied, "We didn't want the scientists to hurt you."

"Hurt me?" Danny laughed, but it was a flat, dull laugh. "Since when have you guys worried about me getting hurt?"

"Since always," Sam pointed out. "You've been fighting ghosts for a while, but now you're fighting humans, and not only humans, but worse: you're fighting humans without souls or feelings for others. These researchers will do anything to help themselves learn about the ghost world. Apparently, they would even suck out the memory of your best friends and your sister."

Danny nodded, then finally found something to say. "Jazz knew I'm a ghost?"

"Guess so." Sam stood up. She was a bit wobbly at first, but before she could fall, Danny rushed to her side and kept her stable.

"Just lean on my shoulder," he said. "I'm not too strong right now, but I woke up earlier."

Sam nodded, clearly unable to speak.

"Let's go find Dr. Neil." They slowly headed for the doorway, where Neil was still on his way to "the office". 

"Neil!" Danny called before he could leave the room. Neil turned around as Danny and Sam made their way to the Irish doctor.

"What's the problem?" Neil asked.

"Sam's having some trouble walking."

"No worries," Neil replied. "She'll be back to normal in minutes. No injections required. In fact, let her go."

"Let her go? Are you crazy? She'll fall."

"I'm not crazy. Just do it and trust me."

"Like I can trust  _anyone_  around here," Danny muttered.

Neil's eyes glimmered. They weren't the usual brown. They had changed to blue. "Trust me," he repeated.

Danny understood now. Neil was a half-ghost, too. He wasn't like the other researchers or scientists. So he let Sam go and she stumbled blindly for a moment, then stood on her own.

From that moment on, Danny knew that Neil was on his side.


	8. Chapter 8

Neil leaned toward Danny. His voice was low but urgent as he spoke.

"Get your friends and follow me."

He nodded, told Sam to wait where she stood, and headed to where Tucker sat, lazily flipping through the TV channels with the remote.

"Oh, thank god you're here, Danny." He smiled and Danny blinked. After a long pause, Tucker said, "Do you know what my favorite TV show is?"

"C'mon." Danny took his wrist and pulled him off of the metal table.

"What the--"

"Dr. Neil will explain everything," he told Tucker.

"Who's Dr. Neil?"

They stopped at the doorway where Sam and Neil were still waiting. Neil faced the doorway and slid a card into a small slot attached to the wall. The door slid open.

_THANK YOU FOR VISITING._

"No, thank you," Neil replied jokingly.

He led Danny, Sam, and Tucker back through the hallway to a smaller, wooden door. On the door was a plaque, entitled "Dr. Neil". He took a key from his large labcoat pocket, twirled it in his hand, and said, "Welcome to Dr. Neil's office."

"Why aren't you called Dr. Neilson?" Danny asked.

"Legal issues with my last name," Neil replied while unlocking the door to his office. A click sounded from the handle. "But technically, my full name ends with Neilson." He opened the door and gestured for them to follow him in.

"Got it." Danny followed him and sat in one of the chairs by Neil's desk. Neil slumped into his swivel chair and spun around to face a large computer. He straightened out his glasses and began typing.

Sam and Tucker sat down beside Danny and watched Neil thoughtfully. 

When he stopped typing, Neil turned back around and met the gazes of each of them.

"You're a half-ghost," Danny said suddenly to break the silence.

"Yes," Neil began, sliding his labcoat off of his shoulders, "I am." Under his labcoat was a plain, black T-shirt.

"You are?" Tucker chimed in. His eyes were wide. "But you're a good ghost?"

"Yes," Neil repeated, "I am."

"And that means that you want to help us?" Sam added.

"Yes," Neil finally concluded with a pause, "it does."

"But how are we going to do that if this whole place is ghost-proof?"

Neil was smiling. His eyes were blue once again. "Not the  _whole_ place."

Suddenly, Danny felt a tingling sensation spread through him. As he exhaled, the frosty breathing came, and even though he hated being a half-ghost, he welcomed the ghostly senses coming back to him like a long-lost old friend. He could feel a paranormal presence, which was probably just Neil.

"Is it just me, or is it cold in here?" Neil commented. "Or is it just Danny?"

"You can sense me, too," Danny said.

"Ghosts have a more advanced method of communication than humans," Neil told them. He went back to his computer and opened up a window that showed plain text on the screen. The three of them gathered around Neil's computer. "This is the data that the DRL has collected of ghosts over the past seventy years." He scrolled down the web page and showed them what seemed like a bottomless pit of information. "This data put together suggests that ghosts can communicate telepathically."

"If that were true, then how come you and I can't communicate with telepathy?" Danny inquired.

"We're _half_ -ghosts. The most we can do is sense one another." Neil spun around to face all of them once again. "Make sense?"

They all nodded uncertainly.

"Well, I suppose it makes as much sense as it can," Neil said in response to the silence. "Come with me." He stood up and shouldered his way past them, pushing his black hair out of his eyes. They followed him and he sauntered down the hallway until he reached an old, dusty door. A sign was dangling on the door handle that said:

CAUTION: DO NOT ENTER

"Are you sure we're allowed to go in there?"

"Relax," Neil chuckled. "If they really didn't want anyone in there, they would have barred the doors shut from the inside."

"Someone's coming!" Sam hissed, glancing down the left side of the hall.

"Act natural," Tucker suggested. They lowered their heads and acted as though they were deep in discussion while waiting for the worker to pass by. As she did, she took a weary drink of her steaming coffee. When she disappeared around the corner of the wall, Neil went back to unlocking the door. He opened it and urged them inside. "Go on, go on," he said, nudging them in. In front of them was a staircase.

"Come on, then." Neil nudged them again, closer to the stairs. "We need to hurry."

They headed downstairs. At the bottom, there was a small, cold room that smelled sour. Water dripped from the ceiling rythmically into a puddle on the stone floor. The room was almost pitch black but lit with a strange glowing in the center of the room. It was slightly faded, but still bright enough to see.

"This is the only place in the building where there are no strange ghost-proof force fields. I became a half-ghost down here."

"How?"

"See that little patch of light over there?"

"How could anyone miss it?"

"I ventured down here when I was maybe about your age or younger. My father worked here before he died and I always went with him. I never went to school because I took so much interest in things around here. So my father took me here every day and taught me everything I know. But one day, about ten years ago, when I came down here, I walked right into that glowing light. Then, it began to surround me and it was so powerful I fell unconscious. Then, I woke up and I was... different. My hair was bright green. Even my clothes were strange. I had some sort of... jumpsuit on."

"I know the feeling," Danny murmured. Without hesitation, he let the white rims appear. He let them spread out and change his form as they passed over his legs, his waist, his arms, then to his head. His hair from black to white, his eyes from blue to green, his clothes from white to black. "My ghost form."

"Interesting." Neil studied him for a moment before changing to his own ghost form. As he had described himself earlier, he had a black jumpsuit, messy but bright green hair that almost glowed in the dark, and shining blue eyes. After they observed Neil carefully, he changed back. "This is your only chance of escape. But we must plan first. If you leave now, they won't be surprised. The DRL is under heavy surveillance. Before you leave, you must convince the research team that you're on their side."

Danny closed his eyes, taking everything in. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"Seriously, Danny," Sam laughed, "when have you ever thought things easy?"


	9. Chapter 9

He woke up that morning, half-hoping that he would be back in his old room, at his house in America when he opened his eyes. But he knew it was too good to be true once he woke up in a hopsital-like room. He lay in a small bed with thick, white sheets. On the ceiling there was a TV angled toward him. Flowers sat on the windowsill, lazily soaking up the artificial sunshine that kept everyone pale-skinned around here. 

The only thing that kept him going was the idea of escape and his family. They would be in real danger once he got out of here.

Neil burst into the room. "Today I'm going to take you to see your sister," he said briskly, urging Danny to get out of bed. Then, in a lowered voice, he added, "Her memory search was completed last night, so she can wake up now and we'll explain everything to her."

"Is she coming with us?" Danny asked.

"Yes," Neil answered him, adding, "as will I."

"Really?" He brightened.

"I'm coming for a while, but then I must come back here before my disappearance is noticed. I'll keep your escape unknown for as long as possible, but it can't be kept a secret forever. You'll have to be ready to make a big appearance once it spreads to the media."

Danny frowned. "I see," he said simply. "What do I do then?"

"Stay in hiding for as long as you can."

"But I can't do that my whole life. After all, it'll be pretty much the only thing the media will cover. They're obssessed with paranormal stuff like that."

"Then we'll have to give them something else to cover." Neil was grinning. "Do you have enemies in the Ghost Zone?"

"Tons."

Neil gazed thouhgtfully at the blank TV above them. "Go to the Ghost Zone after they find out you've escaped." He looked down to meet Danny's gaze. He emphasized every single word carefully as he spoke. "Do not leave until I come to tell you. Is that understood?"

"Yep."

"You must stay in the Ghost Zone, no matter what you think or see. Wait for my signal."

"Got it."

"Now let me take you to see Jazz." Neil stood up and sighed heavily. Something about him seemed depressed to Danny. His eyes were heavy and dull and when he had smiled at Danny earlier, it seemed forced.

He followed Neil without question, and soon enough, the door was shut behind them and the room was peaceful and dark once again.


	10. Chapter 10

It was a very dark room. There was not a single shred of light coming through the pitiful, round the window. It was enough to make someone wonder if there was even any sunlight at all here, real or fake.

In the middle of the room was a metal "bed". It was more like a table for human lab rats to be tested on. Jazz Fenton lay inert on the table, her eyes closed gently. She looked so peaceful for someone in a scientific research facility, ready to be tortured for the ghost brother she had no memory left of. Of course, she didn't know of any torture that waited patiently for her.

The first patch of light to hit the dusty, old room was the light of the hallway as Dr. Neil opened the door. He held the door open and beckoned Danny in. Rushing to his sister, Danny stumbled in haste to see her. He stopped at the side of the table and clutched Jazz's hand, urging her to wake up with at least the slightest trace of his memory left in her mind.

"Jazz... please... it's me, Danny..."

Jazz's eyes fluttered open and finally she was awake. She stared at Danny like he was a complete stranger, and she glared at him and pulled her hand away from his.

"Who are  _you?"_

The light in Neil's eyes faltered, as well as Danny's hope.

"I'm sorry." Neil stopped and stood beside Danny. Jazz still stared at them, looking bewildered.

"Who are you?" She repeated.

"I'm Danny Fenton," Danny began. "I'm your brother."

Jazz gazed at him, unconvinced. "Really?"

"Yes. I know it sounds crazy, but everything is true, and once I explain it, it will all make sense."

She folded her arms, as though waiting. Her expression said everything about how she felt. She was skeptical. She had one eyebrow raised.

"So you and I are siblings. Your name is Jazz Fenton. We were back at home with our parents at the Fentonworks lab..."

He explainaed every detail he could, desperate to make his sister believe him, trust him. But no one could trust him anymore. Everyone thought he had lied to them now that they all knew his secret. When he had finished his story, Jazz still looked skeptical, but also uncertain, and she seemed to be almost impressed that he could tell her such a detailed story.

"You're funny," she muttered sarcastically when he finished.

"It's all true! I swear." Danny stared at her, refusing to break away from her gaze. "I. Swear."

"Swear to god," she said. Her arms were still folded, eyebrow still raised.

 Danny rolled his eyes, then put his hand on his chest. "I swear to god that everything I have just told you is true."  _She's not_ nearly _as naive as Tucker._

"He's telling the truth," Neil tried to assure Jazz. "You have to come with us when we escape."

"Come with you? I don't want to get in huge trouble." Jazz paused. She still seemed satisfied, almost smug, with Danny's swear. "But if it's for Danny... then, I'll do it."

Danny smiled at his sister. He didn't realize how much he had missed her until he saw her again.

"Were we this close before I lost my memory?" She asked him.

"It was kinda hard to tell," Danny admitted. "I didn't know that you knew about me being half-ghost until Sam told me."

"Right." Jazz eyed him carefully. "Who's Sam? Is that your girlfriend?"

"What?" He sputtered. "No! That's crazy. She's my friend, end of story."

"But you guys kissed," Jazz pointed out.

"It was  _not_ a kiss. It was a fake-out make-out. And Sam would say the same thing if you asked her." Danny folded his arms as if what he had just said was completely solid logic.

Jazz laughed. "So... you guys cooperate well. You're compatible. Why'd you kiss her anyway?"

"So her memory would come back."

Now his sister was grinning. "She remembered your lips more than she remembered you?"

"Enough," Neil chimed in, coming between them. "We have to get down to business. Come with me, to my office, Jasmine." He cast a glance at Danny. "You too."

They went back to Neil's office and Danny led Jazz inside, gesturing for her to sit down. They both sat down and looked up at Neil expectantly, who wasleaning against the doorway.

"You stay here," he told them. "I'm gonna go get Tucker and Sam so the plan can commence."

Danny nodded. Jazz gave him a bewildered look. "Escape plan," he murmured in her ear. "Just go with it."

The befuddlement in her expression didn't quite disappear, but she seemed to understand enough. She changed the subject. "Is he really a doctor?"

"He's a scientist," Danny corrected her. "But I think he does have some knowledge in the medical field."

"Why don't we just call him Dr. Neilson?"

"There was some legal crap about his name," he explained. "So he says we can just call him Neil."

"I feel like there's more to Neil than we know," Jazz muttered.

Danny scoffed, almost laughing. "Uh, duh, you thought there was more to me than you knew before you found out I was half-ghost. Neil's a half-ghost, too, you know."

"Really?" Jazz blinked.

The door burst open and Sam and Tucker were rushed in.

"So we're escaping?" Tucker began. "Because--"

"No time for chatting," Neil interrupted. "we must hurry." He hastily typed something into the computer and a small chip emerged from a slot in a complicated-looking machine under his desk. He took it and slipped it into his pocket.

"So, can we leave now?" Tucker stretched as thugh he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

Neil nodded and ushered them all out the door silently.

They went straight to the dusty, old door with the black and yellow striped warning sign.

"Damned sign," Neil muttered, adjusting the key inside the keyhole as it made quiet but clicking sounds. He was trying to unlock it as quickly as he could. When the door finally opened fr him, he rushed Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz into the small hallway that led to the staircase. They sprinted downstairs and stopped at the bottom, staying near the walls. No one wanted to get close to the faded, glowing light in the room's center.

"You , as a ghost, like me, can walk through walls. Correct?" Neil asked. He had sprinted down all those steps, too, and yet, he was the only one who wasn't gasping for breath from exhaustion. It especially didn't help them that the room smelled awful, with its damp, old stench.

Danny felt his skin tingle. "Correct," he echoed. "Is that how we're going to escape?"

"Correct," Neil concluded. "Take their hands and make them intangible."

"Okay." Danny obeyed his order and took Sam's hand, then Tucker's hand,and he closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them, he was in his ghost form. That was the way it should have been. In a research lab where his powers were stifled, everything felt unnatural. Until now.

"Grab my hand," Neil ordered Jazz gently. She did so and he went to his ghost form. "When I say run, you run," he said, turning around to face Sam and Tucker. "Then, when I say stop, stop running and Danny and I will fly you the rest of the way."

"Run!" The Irish doctor yelled suddenly. Startled, Danny began to run behind Neil and his sister. Right through the wall. Now, they were in darkness. There was nothing surrounding them but dirt. After a few short but exhausting moments, Neil finally shouted, "Stop!" And Danny had to carry both of his friends the rest of the way to the surface.

"Almost there," Neil encouraged him, seeing that Danny was in pain having to use so much strength after being weak for so long in a "hospital". He squinted, not wanting to look anymore.

He opened his eyes when he could tell they had broken through the surface of the ground. Sunlight blared in his eyes and a headache split through his temples. He let himself sink back to the ground, squinting in pain, and he, Sam, and Tucker were no longer invisible.

"Stop!" Neil shouted. "They'll see us!" His hand was outstretched toward them, and Jazz appeared out of thin air.

Suddenly, sirens went off and they all looked around wildly, left to right. Neil went to his human form and hollered, "Run!"

Danny wondered why Neil didn't stay in his ghost form, but he didn't ask questions. He grabbed Tucker and Sam's hands again, beginning to take off into flight, but beore he could become fully airborne, something greatly weakened him and he was involuntarily changed back to a human. Scientists and researchers streamed out of the building, chasing after Danny and the others.

Neil turned around, then faced them again. "Go. Go!"

"Come with us!" Danny offered.

"I have to fight them so you can get out of here! They've stifled the ghost powers and you need to  _run!"_

Danny gaped at him as he kicked powerfully at a guard. The guard's knees buckled and he fell to the ground writhing. A hint of amusement crawled into the Irish scientist's gaze. Deciding Neil would be alright, he turned around and began to flee away from the DRL.

But Neil didn't realize that there was another guard behind him.

With a dagger.

Danny and his friends whipped around once again when they heard a sharp, shocked gurgle of pain erupt from behind them. They saw Neil doubled over, clutching a dagger that was buried deeply into his torso. His face immediately went pale as the blood was drained from it. Blood seeped through his black T-shirt as he stared at Danny, his breathing nearly stopped completely. Danny's heart thudded in his chest and everything was so quiet, his heartbeat was all he could hear. Neil's wide eyes went blue again, then back to brown under his glasses. "Okay--" he choked out, his Irish accent suddenly weak and pained, "--minor... setback." He collapsed to the ground on his back, still clutching the dagger. The guards were too distracted to chase after the others who had escaped, and everyone stood still but Danny, who rushed to Neil's side. The doctor was breathing heavily now, and his eyes were glazing over. His chest was rising and falling so intensely and so quickly... death was inevitable. The light of amusement still twinkled, ever so slightly in his brown eyes that Danny could barely see it. Neil fumbled for a computer chip in his pocket and gave it to Danny, his hand trembling uncontrollably. Grief overtook him when Neil's eyes grew vacant, when his heavy breathing became slower and slower... until it stopped. Doctor Neilson lay spread-eagled on the ground, his once white labcoat now stained with blood that formed a small pool around him. The dagger was still held tightly in his left hand, so tightly that his knuckles were white.

Blood stained the computer chip that Neil had given Danny, and his hand was splotched with the scarlet liquid, too. He clutched the chip tightly and gritted his teeth, trying not to let out a wail of grief for the dead James Lewis Neilson.


	11. Chapter 11

"He  _what?"_

He held a cell phone in his hand, and strolled around the room as he listened to what the woman on the other end of the line had to say. Before she had finished speaking, he hung up and dropped the phone on his desk.

He slammed his fists against the desk angrily, his eyes flaring into red. He looked up at a dimly-lit wall in front of his desk that was nearly covered in papers, some neatly pinned and some wrinkled and scribbled over. On one of the papers was a blurry picture in black-and white. Danny Phantom stared back at the camera in mid-flight. It looked like he was trying to make a getaway, which he had been successful in doing at the Dublin Research Lab, based on what Dirk had just heard.

"You tricky son of a bitch," Dirk spat, staring right at the unclear picture. "How did you escape such a place?" He didn't care that he was talking to a picture. He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. "Fenton, I _will_ kill you eventually." He nearly snarled.

Someone rapped on his door. Dirk wiped his forehead and straightened out his hair, putting on the friendliest face he could.

He realized he didn't need to put on any kind of face when he answered the door to his old friend.

"Masters," he greeted.

"Fenton," the man replied, betraying no emotion except the smug aura he always had. Though he was still fairly young, stress had aged his looks greatly. "I would prefer you call me Vlad."

"Then call me Dirk," he replied, struggling to keep a respectful tone. "Come in."

Vlad entered the room without a word, his shoes clanking loudly on the dusty, wooden floor. He sauntered over to Dirk's desk and faced the blurred picture of the ghost boy.

"Shame," he murmured, giving Dirk an expression of mock-sympathy. "Don't you think? It's quite a  _shame_ that they let the boy escape."

"Yes, it does seem that Danny is not quite the idiot that Jack is. But I would have to disagree, Vlad," Dirk laughed. "Not a shame. No, they've left him for us. While Danny was busy running away, a guard managed to kill one of the doctors who had assisted Fenton and his little friends in escaping."

The grin made its way to Vlad's face. "You think it's a good thing?"

Dirk's eyes flared red again. "Why not?" The white rims showed up and overtook him, changed him. Dirk was transformed to a ghost, and he looked exactly like an adult version of his nephew. The black suit, the white hair, gloves, boots, and belt, everything. The only difference was the light of cruelty in Dirk's flaming but cold, red gaze. "After all, we should fight fire with fire."

When he looked back at Vlad, he was completely different. He almost looked like Dracula, with the crazy black, shiny hair sticking upward in two, hornlike shapes. He was wearing a gray-white getup, including a cape that had a red underside, a red similar to his eye color. Hehad black boots, black gloves, and a black belt, and his skin was a pale, sickly blue. Despite the distinct stress lines udner his eyes, he was powerful. He was Vlad Plasmius. "I must say, you look a lot like him." He shuddered. "Too much like him."

"Are you _really_  afraid of a fourteen-year-old?" Dirk questioned, smirking. "You're a rich man, Vlad. You not only have power, but also  _powers._ What is there to fear?"

"Defeat," Vlad growled. "Defeat, however, is _not_ \--" He paused, his fists clenching "--an option."

"Defeat is only an option for those who deserve to die," Dirk added, circling Plasmius and observing him head to toe. "Such as Jack."

"Your brother?" Vlad jeered.

"I refuse to admit to sharing his blood. He is an embarrassment to the Fenton family, and so is Danny."

"And they will die." Vlad half-smiled, the rest of his body unmoving. "All of them." _  
_

"Even Maddie?"

A trace of pain glinted in Vlad's eyes. For a moment, there was deafening silence, a silence that rang painfully in Dirk's ears while he waited for Vlad's response. "Even Maddie."


	12. Chapter 12

They had spent the night running, flying, running, flying. They had lost the guards when they ventured into the woods on the outskirts of Dublin. By the time they had finally left the guards' sight, they were all exhausted, especially Danny, and his grief from Neil's death wasn't helping. He collapsed onto the hard ground and let his ghost form disappear, back into human form, closing his eyes.

"I'll wake you up after I've done my shift," Jazz told him. "For now, you need to rest."

Danny nodded, too tired to speak. Tucker and Sam made places for themselves, then they lay down and fell asleep almost as quickly as Danny did. It felt like he had only slept for a few moments before Jazz nudged him awake.

"It's midnight," she said.

"How can you tell?" Danny murmured.

His sister held up her wrist. She had a watch.  _Figures,_  he thought bitterly.He took a few moments to come back into full consciousness and shifted his arms and legs until he sat up.

"Go to sleep," he told her.

"If you feel tired, wake me up," she told him, her words distorted by a yawn. 

"Sure thing."

The woods gave Danny a calm sense, especially for the chaotic world he lived in now. It was enough to make him smile as he listened to the rythmic, varying noises of the forest animals. Occasionally, one of the others would stir or change their sleeping position to a more comfortable one. He laughed softly when Tucker began to talk nonsense in his sleep. Eventually, Sam got up, shook him gently awake, and told him to shut up.

Morning came more quickly than Danny thought it would. He watched the sun rise over rolling hills. For all its craziness, Ireland sure was beautiful.

"Wake up, guys," he called softly. Jazz was the first to do so. She wasn't a heavy sleeper, at least right now. Nobody was at a time of tension like this... except Tucker.

Danny stood up, walked over to where Tucker was snoring, and shook him awake. "Dude."

Startled yet groggy, Tucker opened his eyes and stretched.

"We're leaving," Danny told him.

"Already?" Tucker mumbled. "But it's so early..."

Danny nodded. "Already."

Tucker shook his head vigorously, as if to wake himself up. "Where's Neil?"

They all fell silent, even Sam and Jazz, who were in quiet discussion, and stared at him.

Tucker paused, loking at them with a confused expression. Then he looked down, crestfallen. "Right. Sorry."

"It's fine," Danny muttered, taking on ghost form. Glad to change the subject, he said, "When you're ready, everyone, join hands with each other."

They all did as he said, and Jazz and Tucker took Danny's hands. Soon enough, they were all invisible.

"Get ready for liftoff," he warned them.

"Ready," they all answered. He took off into flight.

"To Fentonworks," he told them.

"To Fentonworks," they all echoed, seemingly trying to make the best out of the long journey.


	13. Chapter 13

It took all day and well into the night to get back home. Danny was extremely tired, after running all day the previous day and flying all day today. He nearly passed out when he saw Fentonworks below in Amity Park.

"We're here," he announced. "Let's go on in."

"I think I forgot about airsickness when my memory was sucked out," Tucker muttered, dizzily shaking his head to clear things up.

Using his transparency, he guided his friends and sister through the wall. It was good to be home, but the house was... deserted, empty. Not that any of them were surprised, but he and Jazz had been hoping that they would find his parents safe at home. Instead, they were who-knows-where probably being tortured just for information they didn't have.

"So..." Tucker drawled, "we're here to go into the Ghost Zone?"

"Yep. Just because Neil's dead doesn't mean we can't carry out his plan."

"But we don't know what he was going to do," Tucker argued.

"Just trust me," Danny sighed. He headed downstairs and flipped on a light switch. Pale light flickered in the Fenton lab, and it was comforting to see a familiar place once again. The ghost portal was off. He searched for a plug and the cord that went with the portal.

"It'll be on once we plug it in," he promised. Jazz found the cord and handed it to him reluctantly. He smiled and plugged the cord into the outlet. The sparks erupted from the portal entrance, then the eerie green light swirled in the front of the portal.

"See? Told you guys." He walked toward the portal without hesitation.

"Danny-- wait." Jazz jogged after him before he could go in. "We can't come with you."

"What? Why not?"

"We think it would be best if you went on alone. After all, Neil said he wanted to create a distraction so you could stay safe in the Ghost Zone for a while without the media snifing around. We can be that distraction."

"But--" Danny opened his mouth to protest, but he could find no words. "Okay. Just... be careful. Please."

"We will. I'll look after Sam and Tucker," she whispered humorously. "You be careful, too." Then, she took Danny off guard by hugging him. After taking a moment to comprehend what had happened, he hugged her back.

"I will." Danny smiled. "Tucker, Sam," he called both of them. "I'm leaving."

"Alright." Tucker patted him on the back. When Danny and Sam went to hug, they paused, then gave each other a fist bump, laughing quietly.

"Yeah, you guys... be careful," He repeated.

"We will," Jazz promised.

Danny smiled, making sure that the last glance he got of Tucker, Sam, and Jazz was stored deeply into his memory before he turned away and began the lonliest part of his journey.

 


	14. Chapter 14

The gloom of the Ghost Zone was even darker than it had ever been before without Danny's friends there with him.  _You're doing this for them,_ he kept reminding himself, but he knew he was in danger in both the human world and the Ghozt Zone. With all his enemies lurking nearby, he had no idea what to expect. Maybe even Skulker was still chasing after him. It did seem like everyone wanted to cause more trouble because they wanted to see a ghost boy.

He sighed to himself.  _Too much ectoplasm..._ Floating around in here surrounded by portals and ectoplasm was bound to get old quickly. It wasn't fun in the first place anyway. But it didn't matter. He had to keep going until he knew it was safe to come back home, when the media would give up on him.

His breath snagged and he spluttered in surprise when something cold and hard tightly gripped his throat. He  gave a strange, almost silent snarl as he recognized Skulker's low, authoritative voice growl behind him:

"Poor ghost boy, cold and dead within seconds, not even given a chance for last words." He laughed icily.

Danny stopped struggling and let himself become intangible, then slipped out of Skulker's metal grip. "If there's one thing you've forgotten about me, Skulker, it's that you can't strangle someone who can fly right through you."

Skulker snarled and punched him right in the nose. The pain was so excruciating that he felt sick. He closed his eyes tightly as Skulker approached him triumphantly.

"Intangible, huh? I don't think so." He raised his hand and an eerie, glowing sphere gathered power and grew in his hand. He was getting ready to blast danny to pieces.

But something stopped him; his bright green eyes widened and he stood still. A shadow swiftly dived past his side and punched him. Soon enough, Skulker was out cold.

Danny was afraid at first. He didn't know what the shadow was, and if it was a ghost, it was most likely an enemy of his.

The shadow emerged from Skulker's unconscious body. Danny observed it carefully, and as he saw the ghost's features grow more and more familiar, his smile grew and became even brighter. The green hair, the black suit like his... a green belt, green gloves and boots, the pale, almost white skin, and last of all, the blue eyes.

"Neil!"

Neil was laughing joyously. "If you thought I was going to stop bothering you, you were wrong."

Danny laughed, but then his smile faded. "Neil, we thought you were dead."

"I am." Somberly, Neil showed him his torso, where a big but healed scar even left a tear in his ghost suit. "I can't go back to the human world in my living form anymore, Danny. Only this part of me exists now. Since only half of me was human, only half of me died."

"Does that happen to all half-ghosts?" Danny shuddered.

"I'm not sure, but based on my studies at the DRL, yes."

"So... I'm likely to be stuck in the ghost zone forever when I die?"

Neil nodded. "That was implied. Restating was unnecessary." There was a pause. "By the way, you have a broken nose."

Danny shrugged. suddenly, he realized that his joy of seeing Neil had distracted him from the extreme pain ripping through half of his face.

"Skulker punched me," he spat, clutching the bridge of his nose carefully. It was bleeding.

"That's quite a nasty punch," Neil remarked, rubbing his chin. "Seems like something Skulker could do."

"Tell me about it." Now Danny was holding his nose. "You're a doctor. Can't you fix this?"

"Do you see a stethoscope?" Neil joked dully. "Let's take you back home."

"I can't go back," Danny sighed. "You told me to stay in the Ghost Zone, remember?"

"This is an exception." Neil held out a hand and gave Danny support to stand up. "Now let's go."

Danny stumbled slowly to his feet and Neil helped him back to the portal that led to the Fenton lab. Maybe things were bleak, but Neil was still around, which that meant that he still had a chance, and so did Danny. For the first time in a while, hope sparked in his chest, dulling the pain of a beaten, bloody nose.


	15. Chapter 15

Days passed as the intense pain slowly ebbed away in his nose. Once he had the "tools" from back home that he needed to check Danny's possibly broken nose, Neil had told him his nose was indeed broken and probably would never be fully back in place. Not that it was something that shocked either of them, but it certainly didn't help the situation.

On the fourth day of staying in the ghost zone, Neil decided that it was time to continue with his "plan".

"Stay here. I'm going back home."

"What? But you're not even a human anymore," Danny protested.

"I've got to cause a distraction," he replied.

"At least let me come with you."

"Absolutely not," Neil growled. "You need to stay here where you're safe from the media. And your nose is a bit too crooked to go on an adventure with you."

"Do you think I would be safer surrounded by my enemies, and, at that, with a broken nose?"

Neil sighed. "Come on, then," he urged.

Danny grinned wryly and followed him. "So what exactly is this distraction you're planning?"

"Not sure," Neil answered him gruffly, "but it will be big, so we both have to be careful."

Finally, they made their way back to the Fenton portal once again.

"Before we go in," Neil began, "I want you to swear to me that you will not do anything but what I tell you."

"What if I need to breathe but you didn't tell me to breathe?" Danny argued pointlessly.

Neil shook his head. "Now, enough with the fourteen-year-old jokes. If it is something you need to do to survive such as breathe, you don't need my permission."

Danny lifted his right hand. "Anything else?"

"Nope."

"I swear that I will not do anything unless you tell me to."

"Good enough." Neil stepped into the portal.

Danny followed him and a big flash of white light hit him, then when it faded, he was in his parents' old lab downstairs.

"Good to be back."

Neil ignored his comment. "Invisibility," he said simply. Danny nodded and felt the tingling sensation spread from his fingertips to hands, hands to arms, arms to torso, and throughout the rest of his body until he was completely obscured by nothing but air.

Neil was invisible, too. Or at least he thought so, because he couldn't see him anywhere in the lab.

His voice split through the silence in a random place. "I'm over here. We're going to split up for a short time. Alright?"

Danny's eyes widened as he gazed at where he thought Neil was. "What? But what about--"

"Trust me. Meet me back here in a week. And bring Sam, Tucker, and Jazz." When Danny didn't respond, Neil decided to scare him by putting his hand on his shoulder out of nowhere. He jumped and Neil chuckled softly.

"Just _trust_ me. Is that so much to ask?"

Danny shook his head. "Last time I trusted you, you ended up on the ground with a dagger in your gut and a labcoat covered in blood."

"If you want to be graphic when describing my death, fine. But don't try to remind me of it." Neil shuddered. "Besides, if it weren't for me, you would be practically dead in the Ghost Zone, and not only that, but I can assure you that without me, you would also be very bored and lonely."

"Very funny." Danny sighed and sat down in the closest chair. "Go do your thing. I'll wait here."

Neil laughed. "You're not waiting for me. We're going to meet up again in Dublin."


	16. Chapter 16

Flying over the ocean nonstop was exhausting. He had done it just the other day, and when Neil told him he had to do it again, he felt even more fatigued. There were a couple of times over the ocean when Danny almost fell asleep in mid-flight, but was jerked awake by sea water spraying his face.

Now that he was in Dublin, he was relieved that he could stop flying, but he had no idea what Neil wanted him to do now. At this point, the doctor was unpredictable. Maybe death was the borderline for sanity.

How was he supposed to find Neil in the middle of a city? He couldn't call out his name; people would notice him and the media would find out for the world to hear. Plus, Neil was invisibile.

Maybe he could sense him... or maybe Neil would come to him instead. He decided to head for the DRL, but stay on the outskirts. If he went in, they would definitely catch him.

Danny ended up flying to the DRL. Even though he hated the idea of flying nymre, it was the quickest way to get there. He was relieved to hear someone hiss at him:

"Psst!"

A tap on his shoulder, for the first time, didn't startle him.

"What now?" Danny asked the invisible Neil.

"Follow," he grunted, gliding down the street. Danny observed the people nearby, completely oblivious to the half-ghosts floating around, cloaked in darkness.

"What are we doing?" He whispered.

"Just follow me." Neil's voice wasn't lowered. "We're going to have to fly again. Fortunately, it's not that far away."

Danny obeyed and lifted off into flight, following Neil slowly and uncertainly. It took a while, but it didn't take as long as he thought it would. He made sure that his relief was not a secret.

Neil stopped in the middle of a busy street. A car drove right through both of them obliviously as he said, "Welcome to London."

"London!" Danny had already known where they were, but he wanted to wait for Neil to say so. "What are we doing here?"

"Destroying a landmark." Sighing briskly, Neil leaped and was flying yet again. Giving an exasperated sigh, Danny followed him without question, even though "Destroying a landmark" sounded pretty serious. He knew now where they were going.

"Big Ben?" He questioned. Neil ignored him and stopped at the place Danny had described. He opened his mouth to speak, but Neil interrupted him.

"How am I goingto destroy it, you ask?" He dug into a pocket in his ghost suit.

"You have _pockets?"_ Danny folded his arms. "Lucky. Defending Amity Park from ghosts and paranormal beasts would be a lot easier with pockets."

"I don't know about you, but I do." He finally found what he was looking for. Danny's eyes widened in alarm as Neil held up a box of matches.

"Put that away!" He hissed under his breath. "Before passerby see a floating box of matches."

Neil laughed as he slipped the matches back into his pocket. "Relax."

"Relax?" Danny closed his eyes. "How could I relax when you're about to..." he lowered his voice to a sputtering whisper, "... burn down a world-known building?"

"Hence, the definition of  _distraction,"_ Neil uttered.

"How old are you?"

"You mean how old  _was_ I," the doctor corrected. "And why do you ask?"

"I asked you first."

Neil sighed. "I'm nineteen. I am going to look nineteen forever, too, because I died at the age of nineteen years old."

"I just wanted to make sure you're old enough to play with fire. Will you still age?"

"I don't know." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Time doesn't stop for the living, but who knows what time is to the dead? You can't learn too much about death until you get there, which I did, but I wasn't completely human. Life after death for full humans may or may not exist. I still have a lot to learn."

"Bummer" was all Danny said in reply.

Neil turned away and ran closer to Big Ben. "Stay here. I'm going in. After all, unlike you, I don't have a life to lose." His figure disappeared through the wall seconds later.

Danny sighed and sat down with his legs crossed in the middle of the road. Cars swept over him a lot, so it was hard to see the clocktower most of the time, but when he did get glances of it, he realized how magnificent of a tower it really was, and the clock seemed to illuminate the night. He felt bad now that it was about to be burned down. He stood up and flew to the roof of a nearby cafe to get a better view of the uilding in its last standing moments.

Soon, the clock was not the only thing to light up the night sky. First, the fire came as a tiny flicker, unnoticed by anyone who wasn't gazing carefully at the clocktower at that moment. Within minutes, the fire was spreading and people began to murmur anxiously. Even more quickly than the fire was spreading, the murmurs became shrieks of grief and horror.

"Someone get help!" Came a raspy, British man's voice. "He's burning down!"

Danny couldn't help but frown. He had to remind himself that Neil was doing this for his good. If they didn't do it, Danny would never be safe, and the world wouldn't be safe from the other ghosts, such as Dirk himself.

A firetruck arrived quickly. Danny began to worry. What if the fire was put out?

He then realized that Neil wouldn't let it happen when someone shouted, "It's only getting worse!"

Danny looked up above the clocktower, where smoke billowed and filled the air with an awful stench. He couldn't hold his nose or the pain from Skulker's punch would only get worse. He stifled a cough, but he knew no one would hear it over the panic of the city anyway.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Almost an hour passed before the building was nothing but ashes and rubble. The bell sat precariously at the edge of it all, covered in ashes.

His breath was frosty when Neil put an unseen hand on his shoulder. He jumped.

"Is that your thing now?"

"Freaking you out? Yes."

Danny sighed, stood up, and turned around. "How did you find me?"

"How did you think I found you? Your breath was just as cold as mine."

He smiled, then remember Neil wouldn't see it. 

"We need to get you home. The news is already throughout the UK in my estimation of fifteen minutes, it should be throughout Europe and the US." He pictured Neil gesturing toward where the clocktower was almost an hour ago.

Danny nodded. "I'm ready to go home."

"Are you?"

He laughed. "Yes. Now please, lead the way."


	17. Chapter 17

_Fenton strikes again._

Dirk had just stopped gaping at the newspaper he held tightly; so tightly, it could have ripped apart. He set it down, and stood up hunched over the paper, reading the caption over and over again, as if he couldn't comprehend it.

**LONDON CITIZEN ON THE CLOCKTOWER FIRE: "It was an explosion of panic."**

"Vlad, you'd think he's more of a mastermind than yourself."

"I know it." Vlad sat down lazily at the table, taking an anxious sip of coffee. "Are you sure he was responisble for the fire?"

"Positive." Dirk rubbed his temple. "A fire can't just start like that."

"Maybe something in the building overheated?"

Dirk eyed the table vacantly, as if he was lost in thought. He let out a quiet sigh. "It's a possibility."

Vlad held his coffee mug in both hands now. He was looking at Dirk. "Why do you suppose he started the fire, if he did?"

"I don't know. That's why I know he did it. That boy is as unpredictable as Jack."

Vlad smirked. "Don't insult the boy. It's not his fault he shares genetics with Jack."

Dirk grinned, but he said nothing in reply. Instead, his attention flickered back to the paper and his grin faded.

Vlad stood up. Dirk didn't move. 

"Well, if you're going to stare at that paper all day obssessing about your nephew, I'll be going."

Dirk looked up with an almost confused expression. "No! Wait. Bear with me. Please." He set the paper down. "I have an idea."

"An idea?" Vlad gave him a goofy grin, sat back down, and rested his chin on his hands, which were curled into fists. "Tell me more. This sounds absolutely riveting already."

Dirk shook his head. "It would take a while to explain. So, in simplest terms, let's go to London."

Vlad nodded slowly as if he was considering Dirk's suggestion carefully, like he didn't even want to make the slightest mistake. He heldout a hand and they shook on it. "Alright. I'm trusting you," he said, eyeing Dirk uncertainly, then added, echoing his words with the slightest hint of a smile in his eyes, "Let's go to London."


	18. Chapter 18

'"Perhaps things would have been easier if we had flown in a plane." Neil watched Danny fumble for a water bottle in his fridge.

"Perhaps," Danny echoed before taking big gulps of water for what felt like hours. He finished the water with a gasp and put the lid back on it with trembling hands. "What do we do now?" He breathed.

"Well," Neil began, but he was interrupted by the sound of the frot door opening. They both went invisible in alarm.

"How do we tell Danny that he can come back?" Danny smiled as he recognized Tucker's voice. "We don't even know where he is. He could be miles deep into the Ghost Zone by now."

"We'll just have to figure it out." Jazz was the first one to head into the kitchen, where both Danny and Neil gave up invisibility and revealed themselves.

"'Ello," Neil greeted casually.

"Danny!" Jazz shrieked, apparently to Sam and Tucker's alarm, because they came rushing into the kitchen, their eyes lit up with hope. Jazz nearly crashed into Danny to hug him. Sam followed then Tucker, and when they had all had their share of hugs, they turned to Neil in shock.

"You're alive?"

Neil shook his head. "I'm literally a ghost of my former self."

Sam exchanged a glance with Danny.

"And so," Neil went on, "I cannot be a human anymore. Instead, I'm now a ghost... forever."

Jazz was nodding slowly, Tucker looking from her to Neil, and Sam watching Neil with intent eyes.  _Those eyes..._  An indescribable lavender, the bright lavender eyes that caused Danny to almost lose focus watching her. He was jerked back to the present when Sam cast a confused glance at him.  _Oh god, do I look like a creep? I look like a creep._ He quickly turned away to face Neil. "What are we going to do?"

Neil looked up at a corner of the ceiling, as if he was thinking about what to do. "Time to make your big appearance."

Danny was too tired to argue, despite the many questions and protests buzzing in his head. "When?"

"When you're not practically sleeping on your feet." Neil escorted him downstairs to his parents' lab.

"Guys," Danny said after a long silence to his friends.

"Hmm?" Tucker mumbled.

"If the place is covered with caution tape, how did you get in?"

"It's been hard to hide from the general public without you to keep us invisible," Sam admitted, "but it was quite easy to come in and out of your house. After you went into the Ghost Zone, we unlocked the door from the inside, then left it unlocked in case we needed to come back."

"Why  _did_ you come back?"

"We saw that Big Ben had been burned down in Britain," Jazz chimed in.

"Hah!" Neil scoffed suddenly, startling all of them. "That's a tongue twister. Big Ben had been burned down in Britain."

Danny rolled his eyes, even though he was grateful to have Neil's sense of humor back; it was better than having him dead, of course. His friends seemed as happy to see Neil as he was; they were all smiling brightly, and Neil seemed just as happy to see them, despite knowing them for such a short time.

"So you said something about a 'big appearance'?"

"I did." Neil got situated in a chair. "You are going to show yourself in public for the first time in a while."

"What's that going to accomplish?"

"Hopefully, you can win the heart of the public and the world take your side."

Sam was the next to speak. "So if he gets the public to like him, he'll be fine?"

"Precisely. However, that is not the end of our plans."

"Then what's next?"

"We find a way to wipe their memory."

"Are you crazy? That's impossible."

Neil's crooked smile creeped its way onto his face. It was the smile that made his small glasses crooked when he was human, but he no longer wore them. "Impossible? Are you sure?"


	19. Chapter 19

Dirk stared at a small TV screen in awe as the channels flashed. He sat at a small, fold-in table, and a half-empty bottle of Coke stood precariously on the table's corner. He held up a small but surprisingly heavy remote and pressed the same button repeatedly to change channels. His right leg jogged up and down rythmically as he sat in front of the TV.

He folded his arms and leaned into the back of his chair, his gaze still glued to the television, but the channels no longer switched every now and then. In fact, he had stopped on channel nine- the news- when he saw his nephew surrounded by all kinds of paparazzi, swarming him with questions. Lights flashed everywhere and he looked startled; they must have been taking plenty of pictures.

The title above the boy's face read:

**GHOST BOY WISHES TO SPEAK TO** **PUBLIC**

The paparazzi were shoved away and one reporter was left to ask him questions.

"It looks like the world is ready to listen. What are you planning on saying during this 'speech'?"

The boy was in human form, which took Dirk somewhat by surprise.

"I'll answer that during the actual speech." It appeared the boy was making no effort to mask his spitefulness. For once, Dirk had sympathy for his nephew, but only for a split second. Having the media hound him must have been annoying. "But for now, you'll have to wait."

The reporter didn't seem to notice his stirring emotions. "Would you mind showing us your transformation from human to ghost?"

"I don't see any harm in it." His white rims made their way to every part of him until he was full-ghost. Dirk grinned. He looked so much like his uncle, even in ghost form. His hair, black to white, even his costume. The only difference was his eyes, his green eyes. Other than that, his nephew looked like a smaller, fourteen-year-old version of him.

_Now I almost feel too bad to kill him._   


"Wow, very impressive," the reporter remarked.

Dirk laughed scornfully at this.  _Impressive?_ It didn't take much to  become a half-ghost. They just didn't know that. They didn't know the capability of him, Vlad Masters, or even the boy, who was still trying to mentally grasp his own capabilities.

His nephew, too, seemed to understand that "impressive" was the wrong word to use. But all he said in reply was, "Thank you."

"Now, Danny, is there anything you'd like to say to your family or friends out there?"

He shrugged. "I don't even know where my parents are. But wherever they, are I miss them a lot and I can't wait to see them again."

"So sweet," the reporter said with a fake smile. "And to conclude, I think this is a question everyone would like to know the answer to. How did you gain these 'ghost powers'?" The reporter leaned in, as if he was doing so for dramatic effect.

"I was just born with them," he answered with another shrug. "My parents are ghost hunters. It must have been an accidental thing with genetics."

Dirk frowned an turned off the TV to be left alone with his thoughts.

That boy was a good liar.


	20. Chapter 20

Danny wasn't sure if the interview had gone well or not. He said nothing and tried to maintain a casual expression as strangers escorted him down a long flight of stairs. Neil was walking invisibly beside him.

He couldn't say anything to Neil. The strangers would think he was crazy, that he was talking to himself.

Neil, knowing that any efforts to communicate were useless, flew away through the tall building's wall. Before he left, he gave Danny a glance with a promising glimmer in his eyes.

Other than their quiet footsteps heading down the stairs, everything was eerily silent. With everyone else's sense of urgency, Danny felt like he was on his way to some sort of death chamber.

"Daniel," One of them said, the echo of his voice slicing through the silence, "You're speaking to the world here. You must be careful with what you say."

"I have a speech prepared," Danny replied, an edge to his tone.

"Good." The man didn't say anything else.

After what felt like hours of walking down steps (which irritated Danny because he could have flown), they stopped at the bottom floor.

"This is it," another man told him. "Be ready. The people will listen readily if you speak wisely."

"Got it." Danny headed through the door without hesitation.

Sunlight blared and cameras flashed as soon as Danny took a step outside. People mostly cheered, but he heard a few jeers.

He squinted and waited for the noise to die down. "Ghosts," he began with a pause, "are no different than humans, other than the metaphorical wall that separates our universes. I'm not as special as some of you may think. All I have done is found a way to break that wall. For a long time, I kept this a secret. I fought the ghosts that threatened my hometown, Amity Park, and if I hadn't, they would have destroyed it and moved on to bigger places to take over. What do you have against me?" He faced a camera that stared at him closely. "I can protect you all, but it will be a lot harder without your support. When my secret was discovered, I was shipped off to a research lab in Dublin and they literally (and I'm not misusing the word 'literally' as many teens do) sucked the memory out of my closest friends and sister just to find out more information about me that none of them had."

A few nervous gasps erupted from the crowd as if they were on cue.

"They were so impatient," he went on, "that they stole the memories of my loved ones for themselves. They selfishly did so just to collect more data for their research. Please, I ask of all of you here today and those of you watching this, show me more support than they did."

Now the crowd looked angered. People were shouting curses and suddenly it grew loud.

"Do you support me?" He shouted over the outraged screams.

They hollered "Yeah!" As one big crowd, but it was muffled.

"Will you help--" he broke off as he saw something very familiar, something he wished he hadn't seen, prayed he hadn't seen.

Red eyes glimmered in the crowd, and though they were toward the back of the crowd, they were easily seen and sent chills down Danny's spine.

The crowd went silent when they saw he had choked up.

Dirk went full-ghost and flew to the stage. Everyone was shocked, even Danny.

"Dirk," he growled.

Dirk shoved him aside and stood at the podium. "People of the world!" He shouted. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dirk Fenton. I am Danny Fenton's uncle. Before I go on, I would also like to bring a friend to the stage."

To Danny's shock, he watched as someone in the crowd went full-ghost as well and flew to the stage after Dirk. His jaw gaped as he watched Vlad in Plasmius form land by his uncle in front of the podium. The people seemed even more shocked than he did.

"Yes, it's me," Plasmius announced. "I am Vlad Masters.We have come to speak to you about Daniel."

Danny closed his eyes and struggled to focus on going ghost. He blocked out the words of his uncle and Vlad. Finally, when he opened his eyes, he was a ghost. He listened in to what they were saying.

"--Has lied to you. He is not the only half-ghost on this earth. He did not become a half-ghost through birth. Would you like to tell them the truth, Daniel?" Both Dirk and Vlad turned to him, making room for him at the podium. He sighed and walked back to it, gripping its edges. He squared his shoulders.

"It's true," he said somberly. "I was not born like this."

Now people were glaring at him, but most of them looked confused. "Months ago, my parents built a portal to the ghost world in their lab."

He finally saw Jack and Maddie among the crowd. That was when he realized how long it had been since he last saw them. Or at least, how long it felt like. They were listening anxiously. They didn't know how he became a ghost, either.

"When they plugged it in, barely anything happened, so they left it as an unfinished project." Deciding he didn't want ot bring Sam or Tucker, or even Jazz into the situation, he left them out of the story. "I went inside because I felt like I could help them with it. When I walked in, I accidentally pressed a button that turned it on. It infused ectoplasm with my DNA, and I woke up as a ghost."

There were some anxious murmurs. Someone shouted, "You lied to us!"

"He did," Vlad spat into the microphone. "He lied to you. Do you trust your hero now?"

Danny squeezed his fists. They wanted to turn the world against him. He had to hold back his anger, or the world would believe his enemies' rumors.

The crowd erupted into a flood of anger, spitting at him and shouting insults. He just looked back at them, letting his eyesbetray nothing of his thoughts.

"I didn't tell you the truth because I considered it safer not to do so," Danny told them, making room for himself at the podium after Vlad had spoken.

"Lies!" A young woman hollered.

"Exactly!" Dirk encouraged, craning his head toward the microphone to speak. "He wanted to keep his powers andhow he came to gain them from you so he could launch an attack on a defenseless city."

Nobody in the crowd knew Dirk, but he was with Vlad, so he had about 100,000 new publicity points.

"That's not true!" Danny protested. He opened his mouth to say more, but Vlad cut him off.

"Are you going to trust a boy you barely know, or me, a beloved man of Wisconsin?"

_Me: -1,000,000 publicity points._ Danny sighed as people booed and jeered at him.

Danny closed his eyes, unable to watch his publc reputation wither and die as the crowd shouted outraged insults at him.  _I was so close._

When he opened his eyes, Dirk was facing him. He jumped slightly.

"You want to fight?" He snarled under his breath. "Let's fight, huh?"

Danny shook his head, refusing to speak.

His uncle smirked and he backed away, standing up straight. He was much taller than Danny, but he looked eerily like him.

"I will kill them all, with Vlad at my side." He was grinning, as if this was hilarious to him, like he was just in some big sitcom. "We  _will_ kill them." He knew that Dirk was referring to his family and friends. "And I will _personally_ kill Jack."

Danny couldn't control his anger any longer. He lifted off into flight and swung a punch at his uncle's jaw, like he had done to Dash when Dirk had possesed his body. He didn't pause to wonder if Dash's jaw was still swollen. Dirk didn't fight back, and though Danny knew why, he punched him again. And again.

Before he could do any further damage, the strangers in black suits speed-walked out onto the stage and held Danny back from his uncle.

"Don't ever threaten them again! Don't think I'll let you go through with this!" He spat, fighting the guards until he saw his parents' terrfied expressions. He stopped fighting, and as soon as he did, the doors were slammed shut in front of him and he was enveloped in darkness. The image of Dirk's malevolent grin never left his mind.


	21. Chapter 21

Overwhelming triumph surged through Vlad as he rapped on Fenton's door.

Fenton opened the door within moments, as though he had been waiting for Vlad to come. 

"We've done it!" He half-shouted. "I've waited so long to finally meet the boy for the first time, and I assumed getting my revenge on Jack would take much longer. But with your help, Vlad, they're both about to face their death."

Vlad masked his sadness with a grin. Since Daniel had attacked Dirk, who was seemingly innocent, the public pointed to a death sentence when the government wondered what to do with him. Now, he was about to be thrown into the Ghost Zone with his hands and feet bound together with ghost-proof rope, involuntary courtesy of Jack Fenton. "Indeed, I know that Daniel has a lot of enemies in the Ghost Zone. He'll be killed off within a day."

Dirk beckoned him inside and headed for his fridge, pulling out a half-empty bottle of champagne. He poured two glasses and slid one across the table to Vlad, who caught it smoothly. He didn't want a drink, but if it was to dull the pain of his personal loss, so be it.

"Who will be the one to kill him?" He asked to break the silence.

Dirk set the glass down.

"I will. I promised Danny I would kill Jack personally. I'm not one to break promises."

Vlad chuckled. "Fair enough, you are his brother after all."

Dirk's eyes grew reddish. "Admittedly, yes."

Vlad took a sip of champagne. It burned his throat. He had never liked champagne, but he swallowed anyway.

"Jack knows of my betrayal," Dirk warned him.

"I'm aware," Vlad answered. "But he is both physically and mentally beaten by yourself. He couldn't face you in a battle and win."

Dirk laughed, and it was a real laugh, the one that barely escaped his lips. "Vlad Masters, you certainly know best."


	22. Chapter 22

The very thought of death scared him. The thought of oblivion forever in the Ghost Zone. But he knew he wasn't about to die. He had to keep telling himself he wasn't going to die.

Tucker hugged him tightly.

"Thanks, man."

"For what?"

"Being a great friend."

Danny didn't hesitate to hug Tucker back. They fist bumped and Jazz came along behind Tucker.

"You'll always be my little brother, no matter what people think of you," she said, smiling. Her smile was confident, despite the sadness under it that Danny could sense. "Even if the world wants you destroyed, I'll stand behind you."

"Encouraging," Danny laughed before hugged her, catching her off guard, and they stayed there for what felt like... years of hugging. Finally, she gripped his shoulders and gazed at him as if she would never get to see him again.

"I'm coming back, Jazz. I am," he said.

"I know." Jazz spoke as though she was trying to reassure herself more than him. "I know." She left the room speed-walking, afraid of letting them see her cry.

Sam took her place. Acting as one, they took each other's hands.

"Sam," he began, "I know that I'm going to live. But while we're here, there are a few things I wanted to tell you."

Sam nodded in acknowledgement.

"First, while I'm gone, help Jazz take care of my parents."

"Of course." Her gaze was somber but reassuring.

"Second, I  _will_ be back. I swear. And if not, I'll come and visit in ghost form and haunt your dreams for eternity."

They both laughed softly, but it was short-lived before they became serious again.

"Third, take good care of Tucker over there," he said, smiling.

"You got it. Danny, just be careful."

"I will." As if on cue, they both hugged each other tightly.

When they finally broke away, Danny swerved around to face Neil, who was floating behind him.

"Don't worry. Nobody knows about me. You'll be safe."

"I just. I don't get it. Barely anybody knows my uncle, but when he's got Vlad on his side, they're like gods. Why is everybody taking their side randomly and putting me to death?"

Neil stood there for a long time, silently gazing at him. "The world is a cruel place. Vlad is rich and famous and beloved, and the world has barely known you. They think you lied to them, but there's a small difference between keeping secrets and lying."

"What's the difference?" Danny inquired.

"When it comes to secrets, you're not lying because... nobody asked."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as Jazz and a couple of the black-suited men walked in, their shiny shoes clonking loudly against the metal floors. Neil had already gone invisible.

One of them nodded, ever so subtly. Everyone knew what it meant. Each of his friends left the room, everyone casting a final glace at him in turn. He sighed as Sam, the last one to leave, shut the door behind her.

A woman dressed in a labcoat, who Danny figured was from the DRL, beckoned him forward. One of the black-suits, as he liked to call them, took his hands and nearly yanked them behind his back. The black-suit's hands were cold as he tied Danny's hands together with a strong rope that he couldn't break or even pass through with intangibility.

"I will remind you," the black-suit said in a condescending tone, "that this rope cannot be broken by human or ghost."

"I know," Danny sighed.

"On your knees, prisoner."

_Prisoner?_ He wasn't a slave. "My name is Danny."

"Fine. On your knees, _Danny._ " His voice was as condescending as ever.

Danny obeyed hesitantly and got on his knees. He tried to keep his position upright as the black-suit tied his feet together.

_This is ridiculous._

He struggled to his feet and sighed relief when he could finally stand up.

The black-suit pushed his tomward the Ghost Zone.

_I couldn't imagine meeting death in my own house._ Danny hopped ungracefully into the Ghost Zone, the black-suit shouting after him, "Good riddence." The portal's entrance dissolved behind him.

"Gosh," he muttered after he was sure that he was deep into the Ghost Zone, "who gave him the right to be so rude?"

"To be fair, he did think you wanted to take over the world." The voice came from behind him, and he swiveled around as quickly as he could with his hands and feet bound together.

"Neil! Wow, you're really prompt."

"Thank you." He bowed like he was being applauded. Then, he swooped toward Danny and began to untie the ropes that restricted him.

"Fenton ghost-proof rope," he sighed as Neil handed him the ropes that had held his hands together. "They're using my own parents' inventions against me."

"That's just awful." Neil bent down to untie his feet. "The idiots who thought Fenton inventions were laughable, then when they discovered they were useful, they took advantage of both your parents and the inventions."

"Maybe these will come in handy sometime," Danny thought out loud, ignoring Neil's angry comment.

"Maybe," Neil agreed, taking both ropes.

"What now?" Danny asked after a long, piercing silence.

"Let's destroy some memories." Neil's expression was determined. He glided off in a random direction, then stopped after a moment.

"Coming?"

Danny smiled. "Coming."


	23. Chapter 23

"So, you expect me to do another favor for you, eh, Neilson?"

"It's not just for me. It's for the good of humankind." Neil floated in place in front of an old, hunched-over ghost, who was carving something with a large knife. The ghost's wrinkled hands were trembling, but he kept on carving like he was stuck doing it forever. His yellow eyes were dull and tired, but they were hard and unwelcoming.

"Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but where did you get that knife?" Danny asked the ghost.

"Nah, I don't mind, kid. The box ghost knows a knife ghost."

"Yeesh." Danny shuddered. "Wouldn't want to tangle with the knife ghost."

"Back to our discussion," Neil said with a glare at Danny for his interruption, "could you help us?"

"Mr. Neilson," the old ghost sighed weakly, "I have no business with humankind, which you technically are a part of, so this issue of yours cannot be helped. I've done enough for humankind; who's to say I have to do more when they've done nothing for me?"

"But I'm not human anymore," Neil protested.

"That may be true, but your intentions suggest that you intend to help the humans. I do not wish to be involved with humans. Now please, leave me to my carving."

"Fine."

"Fine?" Danny grabbed Neil's arm before he could leave. "You're going to let all mankind die that quickly?" Without waiting for a response, he whirled around and headed back for the old ghost, who was already carving again like nothing had happened.

"Listen," he began. "My whole world is in danger. Everyone I love might die because of me. You have to help us. Please." He met the ghost's gaze, whose eyes were crinkled at the sides.

"You're a foolish boy. I was once a human, too. They betrayed me, treated me like an outcast until death at my old age. I wish not to help them but to leave them to their owns problems. If you've caused such a problem, then you can fix it."

Danny watched the ghost go back to his carving for a moment, then sighed and swiveled back toward Neil, following him.

"Where are we going now? There's really nothing else we can do."

"Not all hope is lost." Neil started off in another direction.

"How do you know this place so well?" Danny hollered from far behind him, struggling to catch up.

"I don't," Neil called back. "I only know where Thomas lives."

_Thomas?_ For such a surprisingly mean ghost, Thomas didn't seem like a suitable name for the old ghost that was always carving something.

"Is there some sort of story behind him?"

"Well, he was a professional carpenter and carver who lived in 19th-century Ireland and was executed for treason, which he did not commit. Since he died as a disturbed soul, he lives forever here in unrest."

"He hates humans because they killed him out of their own beliefs."

"Yes," Neil mumbled. He sounded like he was in deep concentration. He was mumbling to himself, and stopped in his tracks.

"Neil!" Danny shrieked, which made him jump.

_"What?_ You scared the shit outta me, kid."

"You know, you talk really casually when you get angry."

"I know." Neil sighed. "Go on, what is it?"

"I know how to convince Thomas to help us. Do you know how to find him again?"

Neil supressed another sigh and beckoned Danny to follow him with a wave of his hand.


	24. Chapter 24

Thomas didn't even notice Danny had come back until he said something.

"Thomas!"

He looked up from his carving. "Oh, hello again, boy, it sounds like you've learned my name."

"Yeah." Danny paused, silently going over what he was going to say. "I did."

"What have you come for now?"

"I came because I really need your help." He sighed. _Here goes nothing._ "The world really needs your help."

"I told you," Thomas growled, "I want nothing to do with them."

Danny stood there for a few moments, completely silent.

"What about your family?" He finally said. "I'm sure you have some descendants living today."

"Impossible, kid, I never had children."

"What about nephews? Or nieces? I bet you have family. But if you don't help me... what will happen? I'll end up dying the exact same way you did. Sent to death by people who are afraid. People who don't know me."

He knew he had struck an emotion inside Thomas when he said that; the ghost's eyes were clouded with memory.

"The people that are afraid are the people that don't know the truth. Sometimes they choose not to know the truth without realizing it. That's what happened to you, and I'm really sorry that you faced such a horrible, cruel ending, but if you don't help me, you're just like them. You're afraid ebcause you don't understand. Please, don't let another person die just the way you did. There are already enough souls that haven't been put to rest. Maybe you'll finally be at peace if you do this for the world."

Thomas's sigh was long and weary. "I was just as afraid as they were. I don't want the same thing to happen to such a young, innocent boy like yourself."

"So will you help us?" Danny asked, trying to keep his voice soft. Neil was standing behind him now.

"Child, since you have found what dwells in the depths of my disturbed soul, I will help you. After all, you are given this ghostly gift for a reason. Use it appropriately and more carefully from now on."

A smile made its way to his face. "Thank you, sir."

"Call me Thomas."

Danny nodded. "Thank you. Thomas."

"Any day, boy, any day I will help you. But even after death, I am still old; I lack in power."

"But you can change a whole time line," Danny protested.

"Only once. I was given the power as a gift from Clockwork."

"Gah! Clockwork." Danny grabbed the bridge of his nose, which was still painful after recieving punches from both Skulker and Dirk. "Why didn't we ask him to help us?" He muttered through gritted teeth. "He could have ended this whole thing."

Neil ignored him. "What did you do to get such a gift from Clockwork?" He asked Thomas.

"I promised him not to speak of it," Thomas replied simply, with a finger raised to his mouth.

"Very well," Neil answered, falling silent again.

"So," Thomas continued, "what time do you want me to bring you back to?"

"I want you to bring us all back to before all this happened," Danny said decidedly. "Before my ghost identity was discovered, before all my friends and family were taken away, before my uncle and Vlad Masters teamed up against me."

"So be it." Thomas closed his eyes and raised his hand.

Before he could snap his fingers, Danny wondered for a split second if he would remember any of the past few days.

_I really hope not!_


	25. Chapter 25

For a few minutes, Danny sat in darkness. He didn't know where he was, and he decided to enjoy the oblivion for a while. Eventually, he stood up and began to walk around, wondering if he was stuck in an eternity of blackness.

After only several steps, he stumbled into something and tripped.  _Nope. Not eternal blackness._ He got on his knees and sighed, brushing himself off. He realized that by then his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could barely see the outline of a lamp.

 _An inanimate object. Well that's something for an infinite universe of darkness._ He fumbled for the light switch under the lampshade, and finally his confusion disappeared when his room was revealed in the light.

"Phew," he sighed quietly.

The door to his room opened, shedding a crack of even more light. His mother peeked around the door and stared at him with a concerned expression. "Are you okay, Danny? Your father and I heard a thud."

"Uh, yeah." Danny realized he was crouching over on his knees. "Um... what day is it?"

"Well, it's one in the morning on Thursday."

"Oh." He paused and shook his head. "No, I meant what date."

Maddie looked confused, and even more worried than before. "It's March 7th. Did you hit your head?"

"No... I just woke up from a weird dream... I was kind of confused at first."

Maddie seemed to understand now. "Alright. Well, go back to sleep. It's a school night, son."

He heard another set of footsteps heading toward his room. It wasn't his father; he could tell. So it had to be Jazz.

"Mom?" She muttered. "What's going on?"

"Go back to sleep, sweetie, I was just checking on Danny," Maddie coaxed.

"You go to bed, Mom. I'll make sure Danny gets back to sleep."

"Oh, um," Maddie stammered. "Well, okay." She headed back to bed, and Jazz stood leaning on the doorway.

"Do you remember it, too, or what is just some weird dream... or fantasy... or what?"

"Remember what? Being discovered as a half-ghost? Yes, I remember it."

She sped into his room and hugged him so tightly he could barely breathe, but he hugged her back anyway.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, brother," she said.

"I dunno." Danny shrugged, laughing joyously. "I didn't choose the ghost life, Jazz. The ghost life chose me."

Jazz let go of him, but she still held his shoulders. She smiled. "I knew all along, even before the world found out."

"I know you knew. Apparently you did not know that I knew that you knew."

"It's the middle of the night, Danny, don't confuse me," Jazz laughed.

"I'm just wondering what happened to Dirk. And Neil."

"Neil? He's probably alive again, since this is before he got stabbed."

"OH MY GOD, JAZZ. YOU'RE RIGHT." Danny leapt to his feet. "Neil's alive!"

"Kids," Maddie called, "I said go to sleep."

"Sorry," Danny called back. "Goodnight, sister."

"Goodnight, brother." Jazz smiled and shut the door behind her. Danny turned off the light and blindly made his way back to his bed. after he got comfortable again, he sighed happily and wondered still what had happened to Dirk.


	26. Chapter 26

He woke up about seven hours later, right before school started. For the first time in his life, Danny looked forward to school.

He threw on his clothes and did everything to get ready as quickly as possible, and Jazz seemed just as enthusiastic to get to school.

Jack and Maddie were surprised at their haste to get to school. "Kids, you're not going to be late," Maddie had told them.

"We know," Jazz replied. "We're just looking forward to a new day, and..." she went on while Danny shoveled cereal into his mouth.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

"Guys!" Danny called when he saw Sam and Tucker. Their eyes widened when they saw him, and they both rushed over to him.

"Do you remember everything, too?"

"Yeah!" Sam nodded vigorously.

"I even got my memory back!" Tucker laughed.

"Thomas really knows his stuff," Danny muttered. "He's just an old ghost. How did he know so much?" There was a long pause.

"Ohhh," he said, finally understanding when an apparition of Thomas morphing into Clockwork appeared behind Sam and Tucker to where only Danny could see. "I should have known."

Tucker was staring at him, confused. "Dude, what are you talking about?"

Sam just blinked.

"Neil-- who is ALIVE, by the way-- took me to this ghost named Thomas, who could rewind time. He did it for us, and it turns out he's really Clockwork."

The apparition smiled before fading away.


	27. Chapter 27

After school that day, Danny wasn't surprised when he heard a knock on the door.

He answered it to see Dirk, who smiled when the door opened.

"Don't give me that fake smile," Danny spat. "I know you, Uncle Dirk."

"How do you know my name?"

"Yeah, that's right. I know much more about you than you think, and I know that you can't--"

He paused when he met Dirk's gaze, which only showed friendliness and innocence, and Dirk looked really confused. He didn't feel a ghostly presence; something had changed in Dirk, and for the better.

"Oh--" he stammered, "oh-- I'm so sorry. There's been a misunderstanding. My name is Danny."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Dirk, Jack's brother, but apparently you already knew," he chuckled.

Danny smiled, and his uncle smiled back.

"Are your parents home?"

"Oh, um, yeah--" he turned around, gesturing toward the lab downstairs. "They're downstairs. Come on in." He opened the door more widely.

"Thank you." Dirk came in and headed for the lab. Before his head disappearedbehind the door, he stopped and looked back at Danny.

"It's was nice to meet you, Daniel."

"You too. But you can call me Danny." He smiled, shutting the door behind him, and Dirk headed downstairs, where Danny heard his father shout "Dirk!" In delight.

"I don't get it," Danny muttered, sitting back down on the couch next to Sam.

"Me neither." Sam sighed. "I guess he's not evil anymore?"

"Apparently not."

As if on cue, Clockwork appeared again.

"Clockwork!" They both shouted.

"Yes, my name is Clockwork," he replied dryly. "Greetings." He dipped his head. "I've come to tell you, Danny, that the evil parallel of your uncle now lives outside of time with your own evil self."

"Really?" Danny breathed in surprise. "That's-- thank you, Clockwork."

"I live to serve." Clockwork dipped his head again, and then disappeared in a swirl of blue.

There was a long period of silence; it wasn't the awkward kind, it was instead the kind that someone relished after a long time of constant noise.

Danny smiled. "Well, how 'bout that."

Sam smiled back. "So what happens now?"

They both inched closer.

"I don't know." Closer. "What do you think happened to Neil?"

"He's probably just living life like he used to." Even closer.

Danny realized that this was the closest he had ever physically been to Sam, not counting their fake-out make-outs.

His eyes were half closed as he spoke. "Hey," he murmured, "this is not a fake-out make-out, right?"

Sam laughed softly. "Not if you don't want it to be," she said, and soon enough, they were kissing.

_What took me so long?_ Danny wondered silently.

The front door shot open behind them. Danny broke away from Sam and turned around to see Tucker staring at them.

"I'M PSYCHIC," He shrieked.

Danny couldn't help but laugh while Sam just stared at Tucker.

"Psychic?" She said. "I think not."

"Don't try to play it cool," Tucker replied. "I saw you guys in the window on the way here."

Danny looked back to the window. "Note to self: don't kiss people in front of open window."

"Note to Danny and Sam: Don't kiss at all," Tucker teased.

Sam rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "What took you so long to get here anyway?" She asked Tucker.

"I was watching the news." Tucker took the remotw and turned on the TV.

The headline on the news channel read:

**DR. JAMES NEIL TAKES CHARGE OF FAMILY-RUN COMPANY**

"Scientist and part of a paranormal research team, this young and enterprising doctor has taken charge of the entire company known as the Dublin Research Lab, a company his father used to own before his death. Do you have any comments, Doctor Neil?" An Irish reporter on the screen angled the microphone toward Neil.

"There's going to be some changes around the DRL," Neil answered. "For one, the paranormal research team will be changing their means of research." He looked at the camera as if he knew Danny, Sam, and Tucker were watching. "And I hope to live up to my father's legacy in the company."

Danny knew what this meant. It meant Neil wouldn't let the researchers treat another ghost cruelly ever again.

"Way to go, Neil!" He shouted. "Clockwork did a lot of things for us all."

"He sure did." Tucker nodded in agreement. "What ever happened to Dirk, anyway?"

"He's still around." Danny gestured to the doorway that led to the Fenton Lab. "But his evil self is gone. I guess this means Clockwork was giving me another chance to keep my ghost self a secret."

"Guess so," Sam echoed.

"Hey guys," he said after another long period of enjoyed silence, "I'll go get Jazz and we can all go to the Nasty Burger for a celebration of the rearrangement of the timeline. How does that sound?"

'Yeah," they agreed, "that sounds good."

 

**FIN**


End file.
